Friday, August 7, 2015

Pablo Neruda Poema XXIV (con traducción a inglés)

El 4 es 4 para todos?Son todos los sietes iguales?Cuando el preso piensa en la luzes la misma luz que te ilumina?Has pensado de qué colores el Abril de los enfermos?Qué monarchía occidentalse embandera con amapolas?Pablo Neruda (El libro de las preguntas)XXIVIs four four for all? Are all sevens equal?When someone in a prison cell contemplates the light of day,is it the selfsame daylight which illumines you?Have you given any thought to what color April may be to the ill?What western monarchy, with its Kings and Queens, is flaggedforever with opium and poppies?Tr. E. A. Costa San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua 7 August, 2015____________________________________________________N.B.: One has deliberately departed from literal translation to getto the heart of the poem, which is ironic. Quite clearly the topic ispolitical exceptionalism, or more generally, the golden rule, or its lack.The last line with its reference to poppies is ambiguous--gay on thesurface but with a clear reference the Opium Wars of the British(1839–1842 & 1856–1860), which were fought to force the Chineseto import opium that British merchants were exporting from British Indiaunder the Raj, and which was hugely profitable. Both the United States and France played marginal roles in the war against China, which Chinalost. There is also clearly a reference to the wearing of red poppies to honorBritish and Canadian dead from World War I, which took its origin fromthe poem "Flanders Fields" of John McCrae, beginning, "In Flanders fieldsthe poppies blow/ Between the crosses, row on row..." (1915) The usagealso spread quickly to the United States, where it continues today, withartifical, paper poppies.